United States Patent Application No. 20020052862 (Toren), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, allegedly recites a “method and system for supply chain product and process development collaboration. The supply chain is comprised of at least one product, where each project is determined as a part (or family of parts), a supplier to supply the part, and a customer to be supplied the part. In one embodiment, the system includes a data storage and retrieval devise to hold project data, which, for each project, includes a project identifier, a part identified, a supplier identifier, a customer identifier, data representative of a methodology applicable to the project, and data representative of at least one control associated with processing of the project. The system and method of the present invention ensures that current methodologies applicable to a project are applied, and allows for collaboration between the customer and supplier during all phases of product and process design, development, and manufacture.” See Abstract.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,200 (Lukis), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, allegedly recites automated, “custom mold manufacture for a part begins by creating and storing a collection of information of standard tool geometries and surface profiles machinable by each of the standard tool geometries. A customer sends a CAD file for the part to be molded to the system. The system assesses the CAD file to determine various pieces of mold manufacturing information. One or more acceptability criteria are applied to the part, such as whether the part can be manufactured in a two-piece, straight-pull mold, and whether the mold can by CNC machined out of aluminum. If not, the system sends a file to the customer graphically indicating which portions of the part need modification to be manufacturable. With any such modifications, the system provides the customer with a quotation of the cost to manufacture the mold or a number of parts. The quotation is based upon mold manufacturing time as automatically assessed from the part drawings. The customer's part is geometrically assessed so the system automatically selects appropriate tools and computes tool paths for mold manufacture. In addition to the part cavity, the system preferably assesses the parting line, the shutoff surfaces, the ejection pins and the runners and gates for the mold. The preferred system then generates CNC machining instructions to manufacture the mold, and the mold is manufactured in accordance with these instructions.” See Abstract.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,406 (Nick), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, allegedly recites an “in-depth review of a product line is conducted, including customer interviews, in order to identify customer specifications that are more complex than customer needs. Customer needs are quantified, and a reduced set of standard product configuration classes are selected so that about 80% of customer orders based on actual customer needs can be satisfied by the standard product configuration classes, and the remaining orders can be satisfied by custom design. Major components in the standard products are themselves standardized. Manufacture of the standard product is optimized for a one-day manufacturing cycle and separated from the manufacture of the custom designed product. A sales office and manufacturing plant roll-out schedule is implemented and managed by computer-based spreadsheet tools. A product configuration computer program module is interfaced between a product selector and a materials management (MRP) system in order to automate the process of entering orders, designing the standard product, ordering parts, and scheduling assembly of standard product.” See Abstract.